An Alternate Characterization of Hazard in Occupational Epidemiology: Years of Life Lost per Years Worked

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bailer AJ ; Gilbert, Stephen J. ; Halperin, William E. ; Park RM ; Stayner, Leslie T.
• Description:
  Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and other measures of relative risk by themselves may not suffice as descriptors of occupational hazards for many audiences including decision-makers and those at direct risk from hazardous work. To explore other approaches, we calculated excess years of potential life lost and excess lifetime risk for both lung diseases and fatal injuries in a cohort of uranium miners with historical records of exposure to radon gas. We used relatively simple life table (SMR) methods and also analyzed lung cancer mortality with Poisson regression methods permitting control for smoking. Among uranium miners hired after 1950, whose all-cause SMR was 1.5, 28 percent would experience premature death from lung diseases or injury in a lifetime of uranium mining. On average, each miner lost 1.5 yr of potential life due to mining-related lung cancer, or almost 3 months of life for each year employed in uranium mining. As a consequence of all excess lung disease and injury risks combined, a year of mining was associated with 5.9 months loss of potential life. For each year actually working underground, miners lost more than 8 months of potential life. When controlled for smoking (and healthy worker effect) with Poisson regression, the estimates for radon-related lung cancer effects were slightly larger. Although chronic disease deaths dominated in excess years of life lost (due to radon, silica and possibly other exposures), more years were lost on average per individual injury death (38 yr), than per excess lung cancer (20 yr) or other lung disease death (18 yr). Fatal-injury dominated the potential years of life lost up to about age 40. CONCLUSIONS: Years of life lost per years employed provides another, more intuitive summary of occupational mortality risk. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Engineering Geology Mining Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Age-groups Author Keywords: Attributable Risk Cancer Excess Lifetime Risk Fatal Mining Injury Lung-cancer Mine-workers Mortality-data Pulmonary-system-disorders Radon Respiratory-system-disorders Silicosis Smoking Uranium-compounds Uranium-miners Uranium-mining Uranium Mining Worker Notification YPLL

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  EID - Education and Information Division ; DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-10
• Volume:
  42
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022223
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2002 Jun; 42(1):1-10
• Contact Point Address:
  Risk Evaluation Division, EID, NIOSH, 4676 COlumbia Parkway, MS C-15, Cincinnati, OH 45226
• Email:
  rhp9@cdc.gov
• CAS Registry Number:
  Uranium (CAS RN 7440-61-1)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Risk Assessment Methods
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b81c959258d38036cc33ad4efcf66bc6f7c21742560b0d94b1a7f84a488ba8f33c5c295ee6d8e6cc86756a1178fcff78d2bfb6d7ab44e925c9f24ac48b79b12e
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199077/cdc_199077_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 130.68 KB ]